Richards powers Lightning past Flyers

Richards scored two goals and former Flyer Vaclav Prospal netted
his eighth of the season as Tampa Bay improved to 12-1-0
against Philadelphia in the team's last 13 meetings.

The Lightning improved to 5-0-0 at home, tying a franchise
record.

"With back-to-back games, we didn't want to lose two in a row
and we kept things going on a good roll here on home ice,"
Richards said. "We want to establish ourselves in this
building, and we have so far."

As for the Flyers, they dropped their second game in as many
days in the Sunshine State. On Wednesday, they lost, 4-2, to
the Florida Panthers.

"Nobody likes losing," Philadelphia's Daniel Briere said. "The
one thing that's important now is we stop losing as soon as
possible. It's a two-game losing streak. We have to make sure
we stop it there and move on."

"We generated a good attack, we just didn't capitalize," Flyers
coach John Stevens said. "We lost the special-teams battle and
it cost us a hockey game."

After Tampa Bay's Jason Ward opened the scoring 6:50 into the
first period, Richards doubled the advantage just under three
minutes later on the power play. His wrist shot from just
inside the blue line beat goaltender Antero Niittymaki, who was
screened by Michel Ouellet.

Philadelphia halved the deficit two minutes later thanks to some
miscommunication between Tampa Bay netminder Johan Holmqvist
and defenseman Filip Kuba. After stopping the puck on a routine
dump-in, Holmqvist pushed it toward Kuba.

But Jeff Carter capitalized on the confusion, grabbing the puck
and stuffing it into a vacant net for his sixth goal of the
season.

Prospal, who began his career with two seasons in Philadelphia,
redirected a pass from Richards past Niittymaki to give the
Lightning a 3-1 lead just 3:38 into the second period.

"He's been a key guy for us," Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella
said. "He's beginning to do it on the power play, he's doing it
a lot of different ways. He's finding a way to score some
goals."

Philadelphia, which has lost three games this season, suffered
its first defeat this season when former Flyers Geoff Sanderson
and Joni Pitkanen combined for three goals in Edmonton's 5-3
victory on October 6. Both players were dealt to the Oilers in
the deal that brought blue-liner Jason Smith and Joffrey Lupul
to the City of Brotherly Love.

Niittymaki, playing his first game this season in place of
Martin Biron, stopped 21 shots.

Ouellet and Chris Gratton - another former Flyer - also scored
and Holmqvist made 21 saves for Tampa Bay.

"Holmqvist did a great job," Lightning defenseman Shane O'Brien
said. "The forwards did a great job, it was just a good, solid
team win. Somehow, we can't figure it out on the road right
now, but at home, we're pretty fun to watch."

Flyers left wing Simon Gagne did not play after experiencing
dizziness following Wednesday's game against Florida.